Really impressed with the machine itself makes a lovely coffee...if you find the right beans! I did try supermarket shelf ones initially but these are not really the freshest and the grinder did clog after the second bag so I would recommend ordering online from a company that roast to order, since getting these I’ve had no issues. I found it quite simple to use but I am a trained barista however it is relatively straightforward if you spend a little time getting used to it, reading the manual and don’t be afraid of it! Cleaning again to the untrained person will seem long winded however it is necessary to keep your machine functioning as it should and it takes maybe 5 minutes at the end of the day. I keep a small 1 inch soft paint brush on top to dust off the coffee grinds from the grinder and drip tray to keep it looking clean! I wasn’t impressed with the jug that came with it, it has no thermometer and I think paying this sort of money for the complete package the jug should have one on, these can be obtained for a few pounds if you search for barista thermometer, Well worth it as burnt milk is not nice!! The only other negative I have found is you cannot heat your milk while your coffee is dispensing which if you are making more than one is a bit of a pain! Overall I’m really happy with the machine and would recommend if you are looking for this standard of home coffee machines

Great coffee machine of high quality and really easy to prepare all our favourite drinks. I’ve used a Gaggia machine before but this is much better. Love the built in grinder and we are able to have great freshly ground coffee in an instant. The display on the model is really straightforward and helpful. Love it .

If you know nothing about making proper coffee this will represent a learning curve. We like good coffee and this more than meets our needs. We're not coffee geeks. If you are the latter, the Barista still enables you to do that. You may want to consider buying a separate grinder and digital scales to waste less coffee and enable you to geek out.

Having been a barista but not wanting to spend the money of a plumbed in machine this is the perfect in between. It takes a bit of trial and error to get the coffee you way you like it with the grind of bean but the crema that is produced when you get it correct is fantastic. The only downsides are the heat of the espresso produced is not as hot as I am used to and the steam wand not producing the same amount of steam as a professional machine. This does not however detract from the machine as the coffee is lovely when you get used to this and compensate your style for it. Love it.

After a decade of Nespresso and a year of illy iperespresso, both of which were great, it was time to move away from pods. This machine is first class. It heats up in the blink of an eye. You can switch from coffee to steam to water and back again with no real delay. The inbuilt grinder is adjustable to the nth degree, to allow for different beans. The grind size can be altered to get the perfect coffee extraction time and the amount can be tuned by increasing or decreasing the time length of the grind. This takes a bit of tinkering - watch some of the online videos to help, the engaging Scott's Kitchen review is particularly useful - with a bit of weighing but the end result is so much higher quality than any pod. Firstly you get better quality and stronger coffee.It stands to reason; Nespresso pods contain a miserly 5.5 g of coffee and i always needed 2 pods per serve, and Illy pods c 7g. A normal single shot is 9-11g ( and the grinder is consistently accurate once dialed in). Because the brewing head uses a fixed volume of water per shot rather than a time length, you can easily monitor extraction quality. The milk frother is top notch, quick and powerful. The system, like any manual espresso is not mess free, but it's a small price to pay for consistent, controllable, excellent coffee.

Really impressive step up from the Barista Express! – It's slightly bigger, but with a more modern look – Starts up in 3 seconds, which means making espresso and steaming milk are both significantly quicker – The grinder has 30 steps (vs 18 on the Express), so the adjustability is much better too – The screen is a nice addition as it shows you grind size, grind time and shot time

Early days yet but I wouldn't say it's the best thing on earth. Nice looking, good grinder but for the price I thought there would be features for everything and every type of coffee. It's a simple machine, grinds - makes coffee, steams milk. Manual adjustments are good to have though. Good machine but for the price of it, I'd get a cheaper one if I was honest.

Delighted with this product. I was looking for a really good machine that produced a professional standard coffee but not at silly money. This fits the bill exactly.